Things you ought to do but don't.

[ElderSkillz]

I reached level 38 just last night and was going to spend my perk when I realized there wasn't a single perk I actually wanted to spend it on that was available to me due to my current skill levels. I sunk it into bladesman lvl 3 which wasn't a bad choice. My character is right where I want him to be as far as perks go. In my search to find the right spot to spend my point, I realized the character I'm working on is the highest level character I've ever made without losing interest and starting a new one, and I haven't gotten savage strike yet, and don't think I'm going to get it either.

Your vertical standing power attack is from my experience, one of your most used power attacks, so by all means I should have gotten it long ago for the attack bonus. But I can't bring myself to get it because I know my guy will do nothing but chop heads off if I do, so I haven't. It's like if I play fallout, I specifically go for torso shots because I don't want to see their head fall off because it looks stupid. (Unless I have a weapon capable of exploding someone's head!)

Are there any quirks you guys have when picking equipment/character development choices that aren't particularly good choices from a tactical standpoint, but you still have some personal justification for doing?

[sinister]

Yeah. For me it's all about matching armor. If I have full ebony but find a daedric helmet, I wont wear the helmet until I have the rest of the set. Just because I think ot looks stupid. Same with the mage robes and their corresponding hoods. There are some exceptions though.

[farore]

So you can cut heads off in Skyrim?? Crazy.

I have a sneaky character with no pickpocket skill. I couldnt do any of the radiant fishing quests from Delvin because of this. I have absolutely no desire to pickpocket, although with my character it would generally be an important skill. I also wear clothes and armor that I like the appearance of over the actual usefulness. My character has a relatively high light armor skill from wearing the nightingale armor, and a low heavy armor skill. But when roleplaying I sometimes like to look tough and wear ebony or orcish armor, and other times I wear robes or just clothes. Depending on what I am doing, who I'm with, or where I'm at, the weather, ect.

[ElderSkillz]

I prefer a hood over a helmet since I like having my face visible until I find the right armor. I love the apprentice hood you find at the beginning of the game; it looks great with Stormcloak armor. I usually don't go past steel plate for heavy characters, and my light characters always end up using thieves guild armor since being a thief is so awesome.

[CreeperX]

I'm one of those players too who prefers appearance over effectiveness. I won't use a better armor piece if I think it looks stupid or won't fit in how I roleplay the character. I also have some huge problems with the heavy/light armor perks since I find many of the helmets a bit silly looking (except those which hide your face) and thus prefer to use hoods or leave their head unprotected =P. Luckily some of my mods added hoods with an armor rating, like armored hoods (which have a helmet under them), so I can actually benefit from the perks which require all armor pieces.

This trait of mine comes really apparent now since I currently have a problem with one of my characters. He defeated Dukaan who of course dropped his mask... and it's mad good. I think one of my mods made the armor rating better since it also made Dragon Priests a lot tougher with higher level and new abilities. More effort, better reward. My character really wants to use this mask. It has useful enhancements too, like 50% frost resist, and since my character as a dunmer is already 50% resistant to fire, he would like to have this resistance too. BUT, the mask just doesn't really fit with his current armor. So I think in order to use it he's now in progress of creating new armor which would better fit with the mask. All because I'm a vain player who puts aesthetics/roleplay over effectiveness =P.

[Mickey]

I tend to use armor that I like over potentially better options too, but I think most people do. (and with decent smithing skills, you're not sacrificing much)
Lately I've been neglecting enchantments I feel are OP, or just ridiculous. For example, I haven't learned any skill enchantments (fortify archery, one handed, etc.) nor have I learned any offensive ones except for huntsman's prowess. (mainly to rename weapons with, the actual enchantment is useless). So my list of known enchantments is this:
huntsman's prowess
fortify health, fortify healing rate
fortify stamina, fortify stamina regeneration
fortify magicka, fortify magicka regeneration
waterbreathing

[CBR JGWRR]

I reached level 38 just last night and was going to spend my perk when I realized there wasn't a single perk I actually wanted to spend it on that was available to me due to my current skill levels. ...

Bit late to tell you now you've used it, but you don't need to use that perk immediately, you can keep it spare until the skill you want to use it in is high enough.

[Mattbott]

i have a pure mage who relies of alteration and wards instead of armour so i am for the first time actually filling the mask wall with dragon priest masks instead of wearing them

i never perk pick lock, i find the perks spoil using the skill and even accumulate too much money for me which devalues everything

[ElderSkillz]

@ Mickey:
The enchantments I go for are damage increases, and effects that increase stats rather than skill levels. Though I try to collect smithing skill level gear as well since I don't use Alchemy or Enchanting, and smithed items are fairly crucial if you like having decent gear whatsoever. Smithing also allows you to hold onto weaker gear longer if you prefer it for it's looks.

@CBR JGWRR:
I know. I've even held off leveling to use the progression to the next level as a health potion basically, saving it for when I'm about to die. Mostly in lower levels though, when potions and food are precious. I think I would have eventually gotten the perk anyways, so I don't mind spending the point.

@ Mattbott:
I really like the idea of wards, but I find magic as a whole, an unnecessary substitution for physical combat. I used to make mages in Oblivion and Morrowind, but they handled physical combat so well in this game, while making it difficult to master the schools of magic as a whole, so the combination of the two had kept me away from it.

[Mattbott]

yeah i agree, i think Skyrim is a far more physical combat orientated game, even to the point where the magic and how you access it is almost like playing COD or something. But it suits the land and makes sense - you could argue Winterhold would have had to veer away from pure research and give the Nords spells they wanted to use

Spoiler:

You need your perks if you are going to be a mage and i am just getting the character i want to play, at 80th level. At least 20 of my perks have come from me legendarising alteration and illusion. I have specialised in some magical areas so it's not even like i bought everything for the schools i use.. can't imagine how i would be able to get a mage i liked without patch 1.9 or Hermaeus Mora's perk reassignment ability. Perhaps a problem in game design - perhaps we need fewer perks but they do more, or just automatically earn or can pick up perks without having to spend the level up point.. dunno

[ElderSkillz]

I only recently started loving trainers. They take some of the monotony out of leveling your favorite skills. It's shifted a little of my focus towards collecting valuable loot. (I pick up anything worth over 500 septims.) I used to only pick up potions and money; never bothering to pick up loot or pick locks because I didn't want to contribute any xp towards my speech skill dealing with the shops selling it, or lockpicking skill breaking into chests. Now I let things slide a little because it doesn't make a noticable difference, and it's nice to pass a speech check every once in a while.

I'd like to try making a heavy/melee/destruction character but I always just fall back on bows since I can sink more points into stamina and health that way. But if you can earn a decent income, leveling certain skills won't be such a chore, which would be a good idea specifically for leveling magic skills I think.

[ElderSkillz]

Oh and I haven't gotten steady hand either. I don't find it that useful. Anyone else skip those either?

[Just_Mad]

Elderskillz, I skip steady hand because I find it takes some of the required skill out of Archery. If I really, really wanted one of those (admittedly sometimes awesome) moments in which you fire a dozen arrows in slow motion, I can use the slow time shout- but that in itself brings me to my main point on topic;

I don't shout. In fact, most of my characters aren't even acknowledged as the Dragonborn. Whoops. I guess I just forget about them, and take the world on with the steel of my blades or arrowheads. I do have some magic-dedicated characters, but outside of those, none of my others even use magic at all, up to and including enchanting.

[Aarah]

Should use a second weapon in my left hand when my magicka runs out - I always forget.
Sort out my potions and stop hoarding things.

[ElderSkillz]

@ MadAndyD

The shouts I use are: Unrelenting force, whirlwind sprint, become ethereal, and elemental fury.

The ones I think are useful but I always forget to use or get: Slow time, marked for death, and throw voice.

Shouts are the probably the reason I haven't made a magic user yet. That and I love the way they did physical combat in Skyrim.

[Dohva.]

I'm one of those players too who prefers appearance over effectiveness. I won't use a better armor piece if I think it looks stupid or won't fit in how I roleplay the character.

Same here. The armor my characters wear depends on who they are.

One thing that my Nord character should probably do is not take loot from Nordic ruins...but I personally don't have any willpower to keep him from being rich. I should probably find a way to stop being so greedy.

[Mattbott]

i always keep loot potions in case i need them in a certain situation, even though i usually either forget about them or actually decide to save them for another time when that situation arises

so most of by characters have around 100 bottles of assorted stuff at any time and i rarely sort through them, unless it's to sell multiple home made ones which i have improved upon

[CreeperX]

^
I tend to do the same. No wonder my carrying capacity is always full when I keep storing 100+ potions which each weight 0.5.
I'm finally starting to learn though.

[Mattbott]

i'd be interested in a remodeling of the characters in future showing your kit and where you have it, i would imagine we'd be far less likely to hoard stuff if our uber-cool dark brotherhood leather clad heroes were laden like camels treading the trade routes of elsewheyr lol

[Felicia]

I'm playing a game right now where I'm trying really hard not to do anything game breaking. So I'm not crafting (except to sell) - I'm only using gear that I can buy or find in the world. I'm sneaking, but I don't think I'm going to take beyond the first Stealth perk (i.e. only 1/5, but I'll take other perks in the Sneak tree), and my Illusion and Alteration are pretty high, but I don't think I'm going to get invisibility or paralyze. My boyfriend is way more of a power-gamer than I am, and I think watching me play this way is going to give him a seizure, lol.

[ElderSkillz]

@ Felicia

I find sneak is fine without those first perks anyhow; It levels really quickly so even my heavy can sneak up behind people and cut their throats. As for game breaking game mechanics, as long as you don't exploit alchemy, I've never found the game too hard or easy.

[VictoriaCullen]

I've never bothered getting the Steady Hand perks as when it slows time, it doesn't slow down the stamina drain. Also Bullseye is one of the perks i don't bother with now as the paralyzing effect flies faster than the arrow and hits the target first which mean 9 times out of ten the arrow misses

[Yaije]

Whenever I lop off multiple enemoes' heads I pile them up in a corner and try to chuck the bodies down a ditch. IF they stay whole.. I might dispose of them too... but not always.

Also, I always reanimate spider corpses... just to kill them again to reduce them to dust.

[ElderSkillz]

Lol @ Yaije.

[Yaije]

I did weirder things in oblivion and morrowind. Oblivion... I'd only use the most basic destruction spell Flare to kill people (if I was using destruction magic), something about my caster refusing to learn the higher tier destructive arts as they saw it as pointless means of dealing damage (while using a few max magnitude weakness to magicka/fire combos to prep the target).

And my nereverine would only brandish a blade when utter mass genocide was required (accidentally killed Aldruhn in a minor misshap with a guard) and used a series of magic rings to end lives.